Wrestling with Title IX

Wrestling with Title IX
John Irving

Title: From the title of this essay, readers can already gather that there is going to be some type of argument going on. Irving uses the word wrestling, which would mean going back and forth on Title IX. Because Title IX is also included in the title, readers know that Irving will know a little about what Title IX is, and will explain his position on it. We can't conclude just from the title Irving's thoughts on Title IX without reading the essay. Because we don't know his thoughts just yet, the title doesn't portray any persona. What we can conclude, though, is that we know his thesis and topic will probably be about Title IX.

Thesis: In the first paragraph, Irving gives a hint to what his thesis is going to be about. "Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs receiving federal assistance, may be in for an overhaul." (193). Irving keeps giving information on what Title IX is before he gets to his point. He states that there are two Title XI's. One that was the original in 1972 and a re-evaluation of it in 1979. By the fourth paragraph, Irving makes it clear that the re-interpreted Title XI requires proportionality, "but in order to acieve gender proportionality, men's collegiate sports are being undermined and eliminated." (194).

Purpose: Irving makes it clear that he is trying to persuade his readers to go along with his views on why the enforcement of proportionality is wrong. He tries to make it seem like men are being discriminated against when it comes to this law. He wants his readers to agree with him, and he does this by supporting his argument.

Method: The way in which Irving supports his argument is through statistics and examples. If I was just reading this essay with no examples or any kind of numbers that show statistics, I would think he is making stuff up aboout men's athlete programs being eliminated because I haven't heard of anything about it. He gives a good definition of what the interpreted rule is, "the ratio of male to female athletes be proportionate to the ratio of male to female students at a particular college." (194). He then goes on to say that "on average, females make up about 56% of the college enrollment, males 44%. This means more than half the athletes on team rosters must be women." (194). Because of this, men's teams are being cut. Irving tells of wrestling teams that are arguing about being discriminated against and why they are so upset. He says that wrestling has been a rapidly growing sport at the high school level and backs this up with a cited statistic of a wrestling projects director. "In 2001, there were 244,984 athletes wrestling in high school; only 5,966 got to wrestle in the N.C.A.A." (195). He goes on to give examples of teams being dropped even with their finances are in order, meaning the only other reason the sport was dropped was to comply with gender proportionality.

Irving uses negative words to help his argument. He uses words such as wrong, lazy. discrimination, dropped, ludicrous, etc. These all help his readers to identify with his negative feelings about the new Title IX.

Persona: After reading this essay, it is clear that Irving presents himself as a supporter of men's athletics and that the new Title IX isn't right. Even though he is a man, he clearly states that he is a woman's advocate and doesn't have hostile feelings toward women, but that he just wants to eliminate discrimination against male athletes. He does a good job of proving this when he gives the example of the ASU rowing team that tried to create more opportunites for women rather than cutting male collegiate sports.

Closing Paragraph: In Irving's last attempt to try and persuade his readers, he includes a short story about what an umpire said before a baseball game. He relates that to Title IX by saying, "Keep Title IX; eliminate proportionality. Play Fair." (197). This does a good job of wrapping up thoughts and leaving the audience with something to think about. This creates a united feeling that discrimination isn't fair and shouldn't be objected to.

Impressions: After reading this essay, I think that Irving is right about his view on the re-evaluated Title IX. Men should not be discriminated against just because they are more interested in college sports than women are. They are more involved in athletics all around, and should not have to suffer because female interest isn't there. I thought Irving did a good job on backing up his views with all of his examples that he gave. He really made me think about this issue in detail and why a rule like this is even in existence. I agree with eliminating proportionality and letting males compete.

Brittany Lake